


Unfamiliar Surroundings

by Yoshishisha



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bickering, F/F, Femslash February, Magizoologist Luna Lovegood, POV Luna Lovegood, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-19 09:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22675387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshishisha/pseuds/Yoshishisha
Summary: Luna finds herself transported in a place where there are no magical creatures floating at the edge of her vision and Harry Potter's face is plastered on a billboard bigger than her. She'll figure out how to get home eventually...
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Luna Lovegood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Harry Potter Rare Pair Bingo: Round One!





	Unfamiliar Surroundings

**Author's Note:**

> This fills square P034 of my hprarepair bingo card (only one square left to get bingo and 2 days to finish that last fic!) The prompt demanded two characters who'd barely spoken to each other getting stuck in our world, and I wanted Luna in there. Astoria kinda found a space by herself. Enjoy!

Between a moment and the next, in an apparently seamless transition, the world changed around her. Somehow, Luna couldn’t find it within herself to be surprised. She couldn’t say she was familiar with spontaneous travel such as this one, for all that she was used to unpredictable events. During the course of her travels, she’d gotten into more strange situations than she could count and had learned just as quickly to make do with them. Apparating without even realising however? That might be pushing the boundaries quite a bit.

It didn’t take her much time to realise that something else was wrong. Luna had never been a Sensor, never been able to feel the flow of magic the way her mother had right until the moment she found herself destroyed by her own experiment. Luna had always had a keen eyesight however, one that saw what was meant to be veiled, and the familiar shapes she’d gotten used to seeing at the edge of her vision seemed nowhere to be seen right then. There were no floating creatures at the edge of her vision, none of the distracting blurs she’d gotten used to glimpsing out from the corner of her eyes.

Something was wrong. And as Luna stood up from the comfortable patch of grass she’d been laying on while she regained her bearings, more differences became obvious to her. She’d been in a clearing in the middle of a forest, but currently found herself in a patch of grass near a bustling town. She turned around on herself to widen her field of view, and indeed, it seemed like even the air had lost the shimmer characteristic of magical creatures in the area. 

Realising that she wouldn’t be able to gather more information from her current position, Luna stepped out of the grass and onto a sidewalk. She was used to wandering around looking for clues after, and she didn’t need to walk more than a few steps before she noticed something of interest.

“Oh, that does explain some things.”

Harry’s eyes met her own as she approached the window of what seemed to be a bookstore. The face was bigger than her chest, made dirty by sweat and blood, and on it was a strong reminder of the expression he’d worn before the battle of Hogwarts. Under, the words “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” were written in jagged font, the shape of the H a reminder of the lightning bolt scar that adorned his forehead. He would almost certainly frown in mortification and anger should he see that poster, and he certainly wouldn’t have approved its creation.

Through the window, she could also see what seemed to be a screen on which Harry, Ron and Hermione were moving through a forest, spells flying from their wands. Harry’s face seemed to be on shirts, toys, and Luna took in a deep breath as she noticed all the other unfamiliar things in that shop.

“Seems like I’m not in Hogwarts anymore,” Luna whispered faintly to herself. 

Her feet led her away from the poster, even as her mind wandered in search of an explanation. She might have felt more worried under different circumstances, but she’d been transported from the middle of an isolated forest, after all. Nobody was expecting her anytime soon, and worrying wouldn’t improve her current situation. It had been her lack of lingering on um unpleasant situations that had let her coast through Hogwarts as well as she had, and that was a useful skill Luna had kept nurturing into adulthood.

Despite her current calm, a single look at the bustling streets let Luna know that she absolutely did not want to melt into the crowds, and she retreated back to the comparatively calmer park to regain her bearings. Nature had always helped Luna to clear her thoughts, so she wasn’t surprised to find herself calming down the closer she got to the trees. Laying her head against the bark to stop the swirling of her thoughts, Luna breathed in quietly as she tried to make sense of the different clues she’d gotten.

The faces of Harry on the walls, the discussions of magic she’d overheard in the streets, the books and the complete lack of creatures in the air… It was more than just a different place then, she thought, looking at the slowly gliding clouds for lack of any familiar things upon which to fix her eyesight. She might even be dimensionally displaced, if Harry Potter’s face could look at her out of a window without anyone seeming to react to it. But how could this have happened though? She had been following a creature known for their teleportation abilities, but-

“You.”

A cold voice reached Luna’s ear and she turned to the side to see a face she could vaguely recognise, dressed in finery suited for a noble pureblood attire. The girl’s tone was surprisingly venomous, especially since Luna couldn’t remember ever talking to her before. She did have a go-to reaction for those kinds of interactions however, so she tilted her head to the side and pasted the empty smile that usually unnerved Hogwarts bullies on her face. 

The other girl didn’t leave her time to speak however, and simply glared harder. “Don’t play dumb, I can feel your magic and you’re the only one around here who has any, so you must know why I’m here.”

The accusation hadn’t left the other girl’s voice, but she got close enough to face Luna properly. If it wasn’t for the glowering expression on her face, Luna would have asked for more details about that comment about feeling magic. She hadn’t met anyone who could do so since her mother and she didn’t want this occasion to pass by her hand. Had she been a few years younger, she would have asked no matter the consequences, but with age came a marked improvement on her social skills. As it was, other questions occupied Luna’s mind. Had she not been the only one transported away then? Exactly how many people had been brought to this strange place?

“What did you do?”

Luna blinked at the surprisingly strong accusation in the voice, this time tinged with impatience. Then, she blinked again to try and jog her memory. “I followed a Blibbering Humdinger through the forest,” she answered, which really should have been enough of an explanation.

It didn’t seem to satisfy the other however, who Luna was almost certain had been in Slytherin at Hogwarts, for all that she couldn’t remember in which year. She bore a certain resemblance to… “Greengrass?”

“Astoria, not Daphne,” the girl waved her off with what had to be the ease of a long-time habit. “And you didn’t explain anything. What. Did. You. Do.”

Luna stared at Astoria, thinking that the other girl should really learn to adapt to the circumstances, as such a constant level of irritation surely couldn’t be good for her health. That, and she clearly wasn’t very good at listening. “You should be careful, you know? Wrackspurts tend to prey on those with strong negative emotions and that much anger is bound to attract them.”

The other girl - Astoria, she reminded herself - didn’t seem to have anything to say to that, so Luna tried to answer her previous question. “I found the most fascinating creatures, you know, quite similar to the Blibbering Humdinger, but they don’t seem to be able to fly and tend to teleport instead. I mean, I still call them Blibbering Humdinger, because I still haven’t found a specimen of that new species and for all I know these one might be it despite the deviations from predicted behaviour. It’s quite peculiar because most-”

“So you are to blame after all,” Astoria cut her off, but Luna wasn’t put off. If she had to get angry every time someone ignored her she wouldn’t have gotten through Hogwarts mostly unscathed. “I can’t believe you had to get me involved in your mess as well.”

Luna tilted her head in wonder as Astoria continued to rant. It was peculiar indeed that the other girl had gotten caught up in this, especially since the magical creatures hadn’t shown any sign of being able to teleport anything but themselves either.

“Yes,” she said pensively, almost to herself. “Exactly how did you get involved in this mess?”

Unless Astoria had been right next to Luna, there shouldn’t have been any possibility for her to… “Were you following me?”

Surprisingly enough, Astoria reddened, though she turned her head in such a way that Luna surely wouldn’t have noticed the colour if she hadn’t been looking for a reaction. Luna didn’t let the reaction stop her however, even when Astoria suddenly turned around to try and move away from her. She hadn’t been placed in Ravenclaw for nothing after all, and she wouldn’t let a little bit of reluctance get in the way of the unrelenting curiosity her House was known for.

“So you _were_ following me!” Luna said, letting the delight she felt show through her voice. She grinned and spelled her hair into a ponytail before moving to follow Astoria, a ritual that had become indicative of a new adventure for her. The other girl was moving fast, but Luna was used to tracking all kinds of creatures and a single witch wouldn’t stump her, even as determined as Astoria seemed to be.

“Why?” she asked once she caught up. “For how long? Are you also interested in Blibbering Humdingers?”

Astoria did turn eventually, the furious glare on her face not fazing Luna in the least. Luna simply stood still, waiting for an answer. After a few moments of staring - although Luna was looking at the small insect buzzing near Astoria’s ear rather than staring the girl in the eye - the Slytherin finally spoke.

“For your information, I was not following you.”

Luna very much doubted that, because she could think of very few reasons why Astoria would coincidentally find herself in a forest in the middle of Bulgaria otherwise. She didn’t think her doubt showed on her face, but it must have, because Astoria huffed. 

“Fine! Yes, I was following you, but there’s nothing suspicious or strange about it alright? Do you even realise the impact of your research? You’re discovering magical creatures no one has even heard of, and you never doubted their existence since we were in school despite everyone doubting you about it!”

The vehemence of the answer nearly surprised Luna more than its actual content. Astoria was waving her hands as she spoke, face reddening in passion, and it was the first time Luna could recall meeting anyone nearly as passionate about her work as she was. It was a strange feeling, but Luna couldn’t help but want to hold it close to her chest nonetheless.

“And you know what the most infuriating thing about it is?” Astoria continued, but she didn’t even leave Luna any time to answer before she answered her own question. “Your complete and utter lack of methodology! You don’t write anything down! You seem to just travel without any rhyme and reason! You just travel whimsically, finding magical impossibilities, letting everyone dismiss you and you don’t even seem to realise how fantastic what you discover is! Someone had to follow you in order to take notes, what did you expect me to do?”

Astoria was breathing hard after her diatribe, and Luna really didn’t know how to answer. She felt like she should be flattered? But she was also quite certain she’d just been insulted somehow. As usual, she just decided to focus on one part at a time. 

“See, you cannot blame me for appearing here as well when you were the one to follow me after all. Did you perhaps disturb one of the Blibbering Humdinger’s habitat? I haven’t had the occasion to see what happens when they are in a hostile environment…”

Astoria breathed oddly for a moment, staring intently at Luna in a way that felt almost uncomfortable. For a moment, Luna almost thought she would scream. Finally, she shook her head, and Luna almost thought she caught a glimpse of a smile before it was gone. 

“We should look for a way to go back,” Astoria said instead of actually answering Luna’s comment. Her discomfort was so transparent even Luna could notice it, so she graciously allowed the change of subject. 

“We should eat first, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had food.”

“Certainly not since yesterday, unless you found some food in that forest you decided to camp in.”

Luna smiled, looking over at the streets to try and find a place to eat.

“Oh, so you even know my eating schedule after all. That’s quite impressive you know.”

“Do you even have any money?” Astoria’s words were dry, but Luna thought she could detect a little bit of fondness in the tone. She fought not to grin. She didn’t want Astoria’s good will to evaporate after all, especially since she was the only source of human companionship Luna had had in a long while.

“Of course I do,” the blonde said, hands digging into the pockets of her overall. She’d long since lined them with extension charms to ensure they could hold as much as she needed. She wasn’t at the level of mastery Newt Scamander had achieved, but she was bound to have some form of muggle coin in there somewhere… 

“Do you think they’re more likely to accept drachmas or pesos?” 

She held out the coins for Astoria to peruse, but the Slytherin simply sighed and shook her head again. “We’re gonna be stuck here for such a long time,” she said. Luna couldn’t feel the sting in the comment however, because Astoria also took her hand and dragged her once more towards the bustling streets. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have some company after all.


End file.
